Reliving the Whitney Survey…150 years later

August 4, 1861: Santa Cruz

The church bells [this] morning reminded me of home, and as I had been in a Protestant church but twice since last November, I resolved to go.

We went down to the beach for a bath and preparatory wash, and I took the barometer along for observations at the same time. Climbing down the rocks at the beach I slipped and fell about ten feet, and in trying to save the barometer I received a terrible bruise on my left knee. The barometer, however, was saved, but a thermometer was smashed, my pants and drawers were torn and ruined, and my knee was quite seriously damaged. I stayed in camp quietly [today]….